15 
INTRODUCTION. 
(By H . E. Stockbridge.) 
On June 10 the Director of the North Dakota Experiment Station received a tele- 
gram from Superintendent Jenks, of the Dakota division of the Great Northern Rail- 
road, dated Larimore, announcing the presence of grasshoppers in overwhelming 
numbers in the vicinity of Orr, Grand Forks County, and requesting assistance and 
advice in the premises. Professor Waldron, of the station staff, nnder tnsti net ion-, 
left for the scene of the outbreak on the first train leaving Fargo after the announce- 
ment was received, and June 20 returned with specimens of the locusts and full par- 
ticulars concerning the presence, numbers, and amount of devastation wrought, 
gathered by personal inspection in the field. After further consultation, Professoi 
Waldron immediately returned to Orr, with full instructions and authority to take 
any steps or action necessary and incur any legitimate expense required for the sup- 
pression of the outbreak and extermination of the pest coming properly within the 
sphere or jurisdiction of the station. 
Meanwhile communications had been received from the Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture, the Commissioners of Grand Forks County, and several interviews had been held 
with the Governor of the State looking toward control of conditions and prevention 
of ravage. 
On June 25 the increased presence of the pest and its extension to other localities 
seemed to demand more stringent measures for suppression, and after a thorough in- 
spection of the infected localities in Grand Forks County, and a consultation, by re- 
quest, with the township commissioners of the infected townships, it was decided 
that a more extended use of the hopper-dozer and the plowing of large areas of stub- 
ble must be immediately instituted. The use of the dozer was easily accomplished. 
Twelve of these implements were immediately ordered and put to their work of exe- 
cution, while a further and large shipment of coal tar was ordered by telegraph. 
The land-owners in the interested localities seemed to recognize the emergency, and 
manifested a willingness to do everything in their power toward exterminating the 
enemy. A great difficulty, however, lay in the impossibility of plowing with pasture- 
fed horses, and the impossibility, in many cases, of procuring grain or feed on indi- 
vidual responsibility, while the ownership of stubble by non-residents was a further 
obstacle to 1 1 1 « - immediate plowing of such land, and thus exterminating their grass- 
hopper denizens. On returning to Grand Forks the Governor of the State, the resi- 
dent county commissioner, Commissioner of Agriculture Helgesen, Professor Waldron, 
and the director of the station immediately held an interview, in which the exigen- 
cies of the occasion were fully discussed and further measures of control instituted, 
feed was immediately shipped to the infested localities on the responsibility of the 
county commissioners. The general authority of the State in the premises, so far as 
active measures were concerned, was placed in the hands of the Commissioner of Ag- 
riculture, while immediate supervision of disbursements was intrusted to resident 
county commissioners. Professor Waldron, on behalf of the experiment station, was 
instructed to remain in the field, visit every new locality of outbreak, and furnish all 
advice, and assistance possible in the premises, remaining in personal control of the 
means of suppression at Orr and Inkster, which localities would serve for experi- 
mental purposes and as illustrations of restrictive measures for the benefit of other 
Communities. At present areas of limited infection exist in (nan. 1 Forks. Walsh, 
Nelson, Towner, and Ramsey counties, the region of chief infection being along the 
Park River branch of the Great Northern Railroad for a distance o( nearly 10 miles 
between Larimore and Park River, and it is here the only real damage has been 
wrought and the chief cause of apprehension lies. It is now confidently believed 
that with the vigorous measures adopted serious damage during the present season 
is not to be anticipated. The danger lies in apathy on the part oi' the public, 
which may result iu the survival of a sufficient number of the mature insects to 
